What Makes Human Resource Development “ Strategic”.

Stoik Musah,
LBS,Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com



Human resource development is defined as a set of intentional activities by an organisation to increase employees skills, abilities or knowledge, and direct these skills and abilities for the company’s benefit (Marsick and Watkins 1990).The term refers to the planned procedures through which the human capital of the organisation grows- to people behind that function or to the outcomes of developmental procedures i.e. growth in the skill and knowledge reserve (Marsick and Watkins 1990).Traditionally, within this concept understanding, the existence of different dimensions of strategy, perspectives ,contents and process-helps strategist avoid the pitfall of a single isolated practice on its impact on organisational performance. This essay therefore sort to describe what makes human resource development strategic within these divergent literature perspectives, with particular interest in the systematic logic in its application with organisations internal components issues and people related matters.

Similarly some evolution has taken place in this frame of reference. This entails that for scholars to contribute to the richness of the strategic significance of the concept, the strategic requirements of the organisation need to draw research design from multiple theoretical perspective- this has caused, the focus on internal resources and processes, to be a large part of the discussion. For this reason it can be stated that only the recognition of the internal component has made it possible for issues of adding value to business performance, issues of knowledge skill and ability to meet business objective, issues of gaining synergy from human resource process and practice through horizontal alignment etc, among other people related issues to truly find their way into the strategic arena (Ulrich 1997). Although some other parts of the literature studies see human resource development as a philosophy of management (Beer and Nohria 2000).
Moreover a one central feature to human resource development among these studies is its strategic logic in its application. This has made several authors adopt the findings of the study of Human resource development also from the view point of strategy models. For example Schuler (1989) and Walton (1999) have created integrated frameworks to cover different aspects of human resource development by using a certain approach to business strategy. Here strategy is seen generally as an idea of how a company reaches its goals. This is carried out through the implementation of strategic planning and systematic processes.

In another direction, within the concept literature studies ,another common feature by many writers (McCracken and Wallace 2000, Boxall and Purcell 2000) is the tendency to create one model which is then applied to all people related activities within the organisation (Recruitment, Training, Development, Appraisal etc). This entails an underlying assumption that all these human resource activities share the same basic nature and play a similar kind of role in relation to strategic management. Although there are exceptions, if we wish to analyse the contribution of Human resource development as a whole, to business performance; each activity deserve its own consideration. For this reason human resource development has many applications in modern literature.

But also well represented in the human resource development literature within this definition is Luoma (2000) works on: (i) The Traditional Approaches that can be formed based on conventional views on the strategic role of human resource development and (ii) Organisational Approach to internal capabilities as a central source of competitive advantage to the concept (HRD) application. Within this Luoma (2000) traditional approach to human resource development, it is assume that; (i) human resource development is driven by development needs within the organisation and that (ii) some concept of the subject have their interest in the outer world of the firm. Mabey and Salaman (1995) reiterated this position that a general view of the role of human resource development in relation to strategy within this framework is to see strategy as a means to assess and address skill deficiencies in the organisation. In other words, the task that is being carried out in the organisation has been further broken down into certain roles, and that a competence profile has been identified for each of the role. The company can then pursue its strategy if it’s entire people live up to their roles and possess the appropriate competencies. On the contrary, the reverse will be the case when people fail to accomplish their roles; they face a skill performance opening. This requirement can be closed with the help of human resource development (Pettigrew and Whipp1991).

The adoption of human resource development as the above demands constant monitoring of factors affecting the expected performance of people issues and processes within the organisation. For example a change in any area has to be translated into new competences profiles and any noticeable failing area is closed by human resource development initiatives (Torraco and Swanson 1995). The strategic logic behind this process (HRD) implies that the development within these internal arrangements is being driven from the objectives of the organisation rather than from those of individual personnel. Robinson and Robinson (1990) stressed that since the development is driven by the organisations objective, the approach often tends to be rational, deliberate and a sequential process, starting from the needs assessment and ending in the phase of evaluation-were the results achieved are compared with the learning objectives set earlier in the process. This is strategic in the sense that unless the emerging needs are being taken care of (Organisations Interest), the implementation of the strategy can be compromised by the organisation. This development need approach within the organisation gives human resource development a vital role in the strategy implementation of the situation. Consequently when the company is forging ahead towards its objectives, and the critical parts within the organisation face a lack of appropriate competence, human resource development is used to close the performance skill requirement and so assisting the progress.

Furthermore some literature studies on human resource development also have their strategic logic influenced by interest in the outer world development trends (Beer 1980, Butler et al 1991, French and Bell 1990). In contemporary business environment, those responsible for human resource development unavoidably encounter a constant stream of external developmental options available. The continous supply- from the environment, of this developments, form trends that organisations find very difficult to ignore. The reflections of these trends are (i) Total Quality Management (ii) Teambuilding (iii) Empowerment (iv) Management Development Programmes etc. This trends, Jackson and Schuler (2003) suggest; that synergies can be achieved when bundles of its practices are horizontally aligned with the organisations set objectives- this position the writer re-emphasized; can contribute to a define set of behaviours and performance expectations within the organisation. Likewise, and most recently Guest (2002) strengthened this position that in addition to the above, it is important to have functional and process integration to achieve the economies of scale expected from the application of these practices. The strategic functional integration both writer suggest, emphasize the need to have a high quality human resource development process mechanism to ensure enormous strategic impact. However the strategic rationale behind this horizontal alignment with human resource practices is not only in the direct benefit organisations get for their businesses, but also in the risk of losing in competitiveness, if these trends were ignored.

In addition to the aforementioned illustration, human resources development can be a part of the organisations strategic planning exercise by facilitating the learning process itself as suggested by Agyris (1989). According to Agyris (1989) the internal learning process can be seen as a set of learning experiences to shape employees behaviour where participant are required to make use of skills related to solving problems and interaction between individuals etc. This set of strategic learning activities (as critical reflection, tacit learning and action learning) are designed to facilitate organisational learning. Garavan (2007) posit that the capacity of the human resource development plans to focus on these learning activities is dependent on its capacity to cultivate a working environment of openness with accessibility of information and involvement of individuals at all levels in the organisation.

Furthermore, some writers (Burgoyne 1988) see this strategic learning perspective of human resources development as one of the ultimate level of the strategic integration of management development and business planning. Alternatively, this thinking has led to the second element of Luoma (2000) works on the idea of organisational approach to the internal capabilities as a source of competitive advantage introduced earlier at the onset of this discussion. According to the theorist (Prahalad and Hamel 1990, Pfeffer, Ghoshal and Bartlett 1998) arguing for this theoretical perspective the strategic management literature has traditionally emphasised factors within the organisation about the way people act, and that these factors, when harnessed, will be very difficult for competitors to copy. This is because they constitute knowledge, skills and processes developed over time into workable combinations within the context of a particular organisational setting (Long and Vickers-Koch 1995).It is assume here that the term organisational setting in this respect stands for two important aspect required for the strategic process of human resource development; and they are (i) The Organisational Structure and (ii) The Human Resource Strategy applied. The relationship between these two important aspects of strategic human resource development has been discussed extensively in many notable writings Mintzberg 1990, Galbraith and Lawler 1993, Dalton et al 1996 among others too numerous to mention) on strategic management.

That is to say, in this theoretical perspective, the decisions on structuring are based on the nature of competencies required in different operations. These studies presented frameworks for using the resource based theory in aligning organisational structure with strategy. The central debate within the literature studies emphasize the role of organisational capability as a critical source of competitive advantage- and thus as the determinant of structural decisions. Moreover other research studies on the strategic nature of human resource development process in an organisation structure, is close to Beer et al (1984) age long Matching Model distinction between strategy and organisations structure- that structure follows strategy . The underlying assumption behind this theory is that human resource development strategy and an organisations structure follow and feed upon one another- and this is influenced by environmental forces. The environmental influence the writer assert emerge from the fact that- there must be a fit between competitive strategy, internal human resource development policies and a fit among the elements of human resource practices( ie action learning etc). This relationship is said to be reactive in the sense that human resource strategy is submissive to corporate strategy (Boxall 1992). As Boxall (1991) emphasis; that human resource development cannot be conceptualise as a stand alone corporate issue, strategically it must flow from and be dependent upon the organisations structure- it is therefore seen as strategic by virtue of its alignment with business strategy, organisational structure, and internal consistency.

Furthermore, the other important element of organisational setting consideration in the strategic logic behind human resource development is the human resource strategy. The strategic significance of the human resource development in this direction is to effectively feed the targeted individual behaviour with all those human resource practice that guide employees behaviour in the organisation. For the most part, issues relating to competences emerge in the course of facilitating this process- but even at that, this is not enough to provide the organisation with the requirement, of the capabilities we search to introduce in the understanding of the strategic nature of human resource development. The competences has to be processed to turn into capabilities, alongside sustained and reinforced with the help of other aspects of human resource management i.e. Selection, Appraisal, and Reward (Ulrich and Lake 1990). For this reason human resource development gives the guideline for these practices and thus create a framework for human assets to be exploited and developed (Schuler 1992). This makes the strategic nature of the human resource development concept apparent again. Since at first, human resource development can be used for creating organisational capabilities, that calls for the alignment of other HR practices and secondly it can also be used for the modification of organisation structure to generate desired behaviours, it follows that according to this capability driven approach, human resource development thus support strategy by making the process of strategy happen.

Similarly strategic action process is required to institute the work habit and culture required for the implementation of human resource development policies. For this reason and to effectively shape the organisation working culture in line with strategic human resource development systems; the key to implementing this internal consistency is to institute the visions and values to develop the desired work habits within the organisation- and an effective leadership structure will be the platform to set the scene for this process, like Garravan (2007) suggested in the dynamic framework for strategic human resource development: that leaders set the agenda for the organisation by conferring legitimacy on human resource development policies through strategic action processes, their strategic influence to the human resource development course will be concern with showing bottom-line results i.e. Creating employee commitment to the vision, establishing the fit of all those SHRD systems introduced previously with organisations processes, people and resources.

Consequently, the beauty of these analogies is that, to understand the strategic significance of human resource development , one has to search in depth, the thinking, theories and research studies on the concept(SHRD), and then try to connect these postulations with our understanding of the concept application. The main premise of this reflective exercise is to unearth the strategic logic in the notion of human resource development, and also to comprehend that its application process consists of a multi- level concept whose contribution to the organisation is to enhance its performance in the long-term. This Human Resource Systems processed, can be rewarding if a clear, measurable SHRD systems is put in place, alongside the right leadership structure and culture by the organisation – for this will go a long way to facilitate this process.





















REFERENCES

• Agyris .C. (1989) Strategy Implementation: An Experience in Learning. Organisational Dynamics, Vol18, pp14-15.
• Beer. M. (1980) Organisational Change and Development. Scott-Foresman and Co Publishers.
• Beer. M. and Nohria. M. (2000) Cracking the Code of Change. Harvard Business School Publication.
• Beer. M et al (1984) Managing Human Assets. Free Press, New York.
• Boxall. P (1991) Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication. A Human Resource Management Journal, Vol2, pp60-75.
• Boxall. P (1992) Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication, Human resource Management Journal, Vol2, No3.
• Boxall. P and Purcell. J (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management. Industrial and Labour Relations Review, Vol57, Issue1, Article84.
• Burgoyne, J. (1988) Management Development for the Individual and the Organisation. Personnel Management, June, pp40-4.
• Butler J et al (1991) Strategy and Human Resource Management. South-Western Publishing, Cincinnati. OH. Chicago.
• Dalton .G et al (1996) Strategic Restructuring. A Human Resource Management Journal, Vol35, No4, pp433-52.
• French. W and Bell. C (1990) Organisational Development: Behavioural Science Interventions for Organisation Improvement 8th Edition, Prentice-Hall.
• Galbraith. J and Lawler. E (1993) Organising for the Future, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Garavan. T (2007) A Strategic Perspective on Human Resource development. Advance in Developing Human Resources Journal, Vol9, No1.
• Ghoshal. S and Bartlett. C (1998) The Individualized Corporation. Heinemann, London.
• Guest. D (2002) HRM, Corporate Performance and Employee Well Being: Building the Worker into HRM. Journal of Industrial Relation, Vol44, No3, pp355-358.
• Jackson. S and Schuler. R (2003) Managing Human Resources Through Strategic Partnership. 8th Edition, Cincinnati. OH.
• Johnson.G and Scholes. K et al (2006) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice-Hall.
• Long. C and Vickers-Koch. M (1995) Using Core Capabilities to Create Competitive Advantage. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics, pp7-22.
• Lundy.O and Cowling.A (1996) Strategic Human Resource Management .Thompson Learning.
• Luoma M. (2000) Investigating the Link between Strategy and Human Resource Development. Personnel Review, Vol29, No6, pp769-790.
• Mabey C. and Salaman G. (1995) Strategic Human Resource Management, Blackwell, Oxford. Management Journal, Vol35, No4, pp433-52.
• Marsick .V and Watkins K. (1990) Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace. Routledge, London.
• Marsick V and Watkins K. (1993) Sculpting the Learning Organisation: Lessons in the Art and Science of Systemic Change. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Mazzucato.M (2001) Strategy for Business. Sage Publication, London.
• McCracken. M and Wallace. M (2000) Towards a Redefinition of Strategic Human Resource Development. Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol24, No5, pp281-290.
• Miles.R and Snow.C (1984) Designing Strategic Human Resource Systems. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics.Summer,pp36-52.
• Mintzberg H. (1990) Strategy Formation: School of Thought, In: Fredrickson, J. (eds) Perspectives on Strategic Management. Harper Business, New York.
• Pettigrew A. and Whipp, R. (1991) Managing Change for Competitive Success. Oxford; Blackwell.
• Pettigrew.T and Whittington.R (2001) Hand Book of Strategy and Management. Sage Publication, London.
• Pfeffer. J (1994) Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force. Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA.
• Prahalad. C and Hamel G. (1990) The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp79-91.
• Robinson. D and Robinson. J (1990) Training for Impact. Jossey-Bass Publication, San Francisco CA.
• Schuler.R (1992) Strategic Human Resource Management: Linking the People with the Strategic Needs of the Business. Organisational Dynamics, pp18-32.
• Schuler, R. and Jackson, S. (1999) Strategic Human Resource Management. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
• Torraco. R and Swanson. R (1995) The Strategic Roles of Human Resource Development. Human Resource Planning, Vol18, No3, pp311-35.
• Ulrich. D (1997) Human Resource Champions. Harvard Business School Press. Boston MA.
• Ulrich. D and Lake. D (1990) Organisational Capability: Competing From The Inside Out. Wiley Publication, New York.
• Walton. J (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall.


Special tribute and thanks to Luomo.M, Who contributed greatly to my studies on this subject.
Stoik Musah writes from LBS leicester.Tel:07737251501,01162516339.

A Critical Analysis of In-depth Qualitative Interview in Organisational Research Studies,

By
Stoik Musah.
LBS.Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com





This essay seeks to obtain knowledge on the research methodology literature studies of indepth qualitative interview. It also sought to critically evaluate its practical application process in an academic journal article, whose report findings was derived using this data collection method. With reference to the above, an indepth qualitative interview is a dialogue between a skilled interviewer and an interviewee. Its goal is to elicit rich, detail material that can be used in research analysis (Lofland and Lofland 1995). The dynamics of this process is similar to a guided conversation, where the interviewer becomes an attentive listener who shapes the process into a familiar and comfortable form of social engagement (Patton 1990). In other words, qualitative indepth interviews typically are much more like conversations. In this type of conversation, the researcher explores a few general topics to help uncover the participants views, but otherwise respects how the participant frames and structures the responses. That is to say, the participant perspective on the phenomenon of interest unfolds as the participant wants, not as the researcher views it. In other words, the task for the qualitative researcher is to provide a framework within which people (interviewee) can respond in a way that represents accurately and thoroughly their point of view on the subject of the interview. By this, both parties behaves as though they are of equal status all through the period of the interview- whether or not this is actually so (Fontana 2002).

In sociological terms, the above illustration often brings about complexities on how the interview framing is being done. This means that; whether the interviewer is just trying to be a nice person or is following a format- these techniques can be varied to meet various situations. Here, Dezin (2004) notes that traditional techniques as the above tell us that the researcher is involved in an informal conversation with the respondent, thus the researcher must maintain a tone of friendly chat while trying to remain close to the guideline of the topics of enquiry the researcher has in mind. That is, the researcher begins by “breaking the ice” with a general questions and gradually moves on to more specific ones, while also – intelligently asking questions intended to check the veracity of statements made by the respondent. As this process continues, the researcher avoid getting involved in a real conversation in which the researcher, provides personal opinion on matters discussed- instead the conversation should entail a real “give and take”, alongside emphatic understanding from the perspective of both parties(Douglas 1985). This particular aspect of indepth interview makes the interview more honest, morally sound and reliable. This is because, it treats the respondent as equal, and it allows the respondents to express personal feelings on the subject of the interview.

In addition to the above Gordon (1980) also noted that effective indepth qualitative interview entails creating a shared concern for each other, in which both the interviewer and the respondent understand the contextual nature of the interview. For instance listening to others without taking notes or trying to direct the conversation is also important to establish rapport and immerse oneself in the conversation realm, while gathering a store of tacit knowledge about the people and the culture being studied (Fine and Sandstrom1988). The point to note in this line of thought is that, to effectively carry out an indepth qualitative interview the researcher must adapt to the world of the individual studied and try to share their concern and outlooks- only by doing so can the researcher learn anything at all. Some researchers use several methods to accomplish this task, while others apply a combination of different methods as the conversation elapse (Fine and Sandstrom1988).

For this reason, Britten etal (1995) in their work on “Qualitative Research Methods in General Practice and Primary Care” emphasis that the most widely used methods in this context, is the structured indepth interview, unstructured indepth interview and semi structure indepth interview. A structure interview is an interview in which questions to be asked and detailed information to be gathered are all predetermined (Dezin and Lincoln 2003). In a structured interview, the interviewer asks all the respondents the same series of pre-established questions with a limited set of response categories. Put differently, there is- generally, little room for variation in responses among the respondents, except where open ended questions may be used. That is, the interviewer controls the pace of the entire conversation by treating the questionnaire as if, it were a planned script to be followed in a straight forward manner. Under this circumstance, all respondents receive the same set of questions asked in the same order by an interviewer who has been trained to treat all interview situations in a like manner – thus there is very little flexibility in the way questions are asked, nothing is left to chance – there is simply little room for error. This is as a result of the inflexible, predetermine nature of the interviewing –which makes the interviewer have relatively minor impact on the response quality (Gordon 1992). However one major drawback in the literature study, the advocates of this method- are unaware of, is that; the interview takes place in a social interaction context and that its influence by that context. As Denzin and Lincoln (2003) observed that good interviewer recognised this facts are sensitive to how interaction can influence responses. In other words, interviewers should comprehend that interviewing skills involve a high order combination of: observation, emphatic sensitivity to these environment response and intellectual judgements.

Furthermore qualitative interviews can also be carried out in an unstructured manner in order to contrast them with the above highlighted form of interview method. An unstructured interview is a spontaneous conversation, not a set of questions asked in a predetermined order (Herman and Bentley1993). Here you have a focus and you welcome information on different aspects of the subject question from the interviewee. In this type of qualitative method of interview, you can direct your conversation in any direction- that is to say: you proceed in an order that is natural. The important point to note, in this type of interview method is to gather and record information on every aspects of the subject in question. Besides you can always return to an earlier subject that you did not explore at the time it was mentioned, to ask more about certain topics that require clarification (Herman and Bentley1993).Unstructured interviews are simple, informal and saves time when preparing for the interview. It provides a general understanding of the important concepts, relationships and general rules on the subject content, and this make way for problem solving strategies that can guide future enquiries in the course of the conversation. This informality aspect of the unstructured interview helps the researcher to get quickly to the basic structure of the subject domain. On the contrary this form of interview generally lacks the organisation that allows for preparation as the previously discussed structured form of interviewing. Besides both parties –in the course of the conversation- usually find it very difficult to express some of the important elements of their knowledge. In the same way the data acquired from an unstructured interview is often unrelated; existing at various levels of complexity and its difficult for the interviewer to review, interpret and integrate (Bashir and Besim 1997).Accordingly, many studies employ a combination of these two types often called a semi structured interview. This kind of interview combines both methods to bring forth the foreseen information- and also apply open ended questions- to elicit unexpected types of information. Semi structured interviews are flexible as well, unlike the structured interview which have a set of questions. In this method of interviewing, the interviewer may have a framework of themes in mind, at the onset- to explore, like it is in a structured interview, but as the conversation commence- a different method of interview, new questions and clarifications can be brought up as a result of what the interviewee says.

Consequently, the above excerpt gives a concise, yet informative synopsis of what an indepth interview entails- what is important now is to lay out the primary issues that selecting this method demand. For instance indepth qualitative interview is usually based on sample sizes (Minichielli etal 1991), and the most common form of sampling techniques used in indepth interviews is most often snowballing sampling and theoretical sampling. The snowballing sampling involves interviewing initial contacts in the organisation and then asking these contact persons who they think is appropriate to interview- to gain insight on a particular subject issue (Rubbin 1995). On the other hand the theoretical sampling involves the generation of conceptual or theoretical categories during the research process(Bowling 1997).The principles behind this method application process, is that sampling aims to locate data and to develop or challenge emerging hypothesis –this process stops when no new analytical insights or hypothesis is forthcoming.

Turning to another line of thought in this subject, that is similar to the above excerpt - is the question of having a valid research indicator to measure a concept. That is, would other researchers reach similar conclusions if they apply the same method in their research analysis? For this reason indepth interviews arguably have the greatest problems with validity of any research method(Remenyi etal 1998).In other words, while an individual may hold a matter as true and valid it may not correspond across the whole population or even among other researchers in that area of study. However, the most striking aspect in this area of validity and measurement of concept in many papers reporting the results of qualitative research is the absence of detail accounts of methodology and data analysis to describe exactly what was done in the research work. For this reason Bryman. and Burgess (1994) argues that journals need assessors who are properly equipped to evaluate qualitative reports using criteria appropriate to the methods used. In particular, an example of this application process is a critical assessment of Fang Lee Cook study entitled “Outsourcing of Public Services and Implications for Managerial Knowledge and Careers” in the Journal of Management Development Dated 00/05/ 04. The purpose of this study was to explore how the nature of work and career prospects may have changed for managers in both the public and the private sector under the public/private outsourcing relationship. It investigates managers new roles, problems, new relationships and multiple principal-agency relationships they confront, as a result of this public/private organisations outsourcing practices.

Notably, one positive outcome of the research findings was the insight in revealing interestingly unexplored issues confronting managers in these outsourcing relationships. The researcher discussed in depth the impossibility of the outsourcing provider to function properly in the outsourced firm without making use of the tacit knowledge of experience employees; who as a result of their length of work experience with the organisation have social and technical knowledge of how processes within the outsourced organisation are managed effectively- this fact reveals that management knowledge is often context specific and cannot be easily codified and transferred as some literature on knowledge management postulate(explicit knowledge)-something most of the literature studies neglect in their research analysis.

With reference to the above critical analysis on the content of the aforementioned article, reference should be made first; on the source of findings, such as the interview with the principal people in the outsourcing provider firm. That is to say, the researcher failed to provide more informations, from the interview; on the reason why these outsourcing providers fail to train their own managers as alternative to these experienced employees (in the outsourced organisation) to take over this newly acquired businesses . And to also find out from the principal staffs interviewed ( from the outsourcing provider company), if there was other reason they refuse to train these managers other than cost and the time frame involved in the process. For the most part, this should have been an interesting area to explore and understand the problems these outsourcing providers confront from their own end, in the course of the business relationship. This is because the literature studies on outsourcing most often fail to extend further, their research analysis on this subject issue. In most cases what you find in academic text is that: after portraying outsourcing companies as solution providers to complex issues confronting big businesses– they conclude and do not extend further in their analysis: to provide insight on the problems these outsourcing providers encounter in the course of managing these extensive portfolio from different client organisations.

Furthermore, the hypothesis drawn from the research work tends to be a bit focus on what the research was about. In other word, although the research question of “The Changing Role of Managerial Workers in Managing the Public/ Private Outsourcing Relationships” tend to contain what the reader expects from the researched work- yet the understanding of the question tend not to be a closed question but a question making way for a mass of loosely linked descriptive issues, that are very broad in their own making, if one wants to further explore them individually. Nevertheless, with its loosely linked nature, it becomes more focused as the study progresses. Moreover from a critical perspective on the heart of the principal line of thought in this article- the understanding of the nature of strategic alliance, management task( as define in the article), and interorganisational relationships, demands more detail analysis than that derived from the use of this method (Indepth Interview). Under this circumstance, it is not surprising that it did have been appropriate to use both qualitative and quantitative method together in a complementary fashion to bring about indepth understanding of these organisational phenomenons. This is because the loosely linked issues that emerged in the course of the research, requires quantitative analysis to dissect their constituent form to help understand their nature more. For instance, clarification on the issues underneath the rationale behind the quotation below would have been better explained using both method (qualitative and quantitative method).

“Supervisors in housing benefit are now taking – work – home, in their spare time, whereas before “they switch off” once they finish work for the day. This new approach to work gives a sense of ownership and satisfaction, but the invisible pressure is constantly presents as one supervisors said: you feel that you have to make an impression on the company”.

A formal quantitative testing of the root causes of the above excerpt would have helped standardise and evaluate the robustness of this causal hypothesis. Another critical area in question, in the use of this method in the article is in the generalisability of the representative sampling which strengthen the claims and findings in the article. For instance in page 272, the writer asserted that the source of most of the data inherent in the research findings was from over 60 semi structured interviews, carried out with senior managers, junior managers, middle managers, supervisors, trade union representative and other staffs. Moreover a total of 27 managers were interviewed face-to –face. In addition to the above, the writer described the categories of the managers interviewed: that 12 of those interviewed were senior or middle managers. But the researcher failed to provide more information on this group of individuals interviewed- more information as (i) How long have they been with the organisation and (ii) How long have they served in management positions within the organisation. In this way the researcher, thus allows the reader to note the similarities and differences between the settings, which is analysed, in the research.

On the contrary, the researcher has carefully taking into account clarity in describing the methods used to sources the research findings- one area the researcher has demonstrated to the reader that careful considerations has been given to the above subject, in this method of interview, is the way and manner a pragmatic categorisation of the three managerial groups interviewed was singled out for the research interview (Page 273). It was a perfect segmentation of the particular individual whose nature of work and career prospect has been affected by this inter-organisational relationship (outsourcing). The impact of this careful selection process- to some extent, has contributed to the robustness of many new flag up issues introduced in the course of the research findings; that was never discussed in most outsourcing literature studies. For this reason, in qualitative research literature studies, readers needs to know how the data sourced, were categorised for analysis. In particular Britten etal (1995) reiterated that readers need to be reassured- that the researcher did more than glanced through their field note and transcript, and then look for examples which will confirm those ideas. Readers are looking for evidence of rigorous and systematic analysis. That is, the reader should be confident that where researchers wants to make a claim on the basis of their data- there is evidence in the study that this data was sourced systematically.

Above all, in all research methods, the ability to present ones method and findings clearly and succinctly is of central importance. This means that clearity in the categorisation of the data sourced, clearity in the data analysis, and clearity on how this data was chosen- like for example, if quotations were properly referenced providing clarification on the source of the statement etc. In the same way, just as quantitative researchers present the data in their report in the form of tables and statistics so also do qualitative researchers present their datas in the form of quotation from transcript or excerpt from field note (Nicky etal 1995). A good description of the above illustration in the article is the quotation below.

There is no real love in between the trust and the private firm but we still scratch each others back and try to get the best out of each other… middle managers are often the scape goat and get sacrificed when things go wrong ( A Supervisor).


With the introduction of raw data as the above in the article, the researcher has to some extent demonstrated understanding in thinking clearly on the above subject by skilfully referencing the particular source in the organisation who made this statement – no name was attached. In this way it has been possible for the reader to tell who made that statement, and what is the source authority- within that organisation to come up with such claims- usually failure in this area of writing clearly demonstrates the analysis has not been sufficiently well developed.

Furthermore, the findings generated from this research work has to some extent demonstrated the significance of its result and how this apply to particular practical /theoretical problems in managerial capacity within an organisation- surely this to some extent, did contribute to the literature studies on this subject(outsourcing). In particular the study provides evidence that the adoption of information technology in management of organisational activities as seen as major cause of recent demise in middle management (Scarbrough and Burrell 1996) is not sufficiently true and valid. Infact, technology to some extent serves as a good source of competitive advantage but the tacit knowledge of managerial workers is more – a core competitive source of advantage that organisations will do all they can to acquire, retain and develop these individuals and their body of knowledge to add value to the organisations performance.

Consequently wide academic research literatures exist to demonstrate the practical application of indepth qualitative interview in organisation research study. However as has been discussed in the dynamics of its application process. It is the researcher that holds the balance of power in managing the outcome of the conversation, it must be their role, in the course of the conversation and the method of interview applied- which gives direction to what the interviewee says, and ultimately the strength of the research findings.Accordingly, success in this area will involve having to make a number of adjustments (as it applies to the article discussed previously) to the detail accounts of methodology applied, data analysis and assumptions they bring to carry out their research.


















REFERENCE.

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